Tails of Red and Blue
by Valitiel
Summary: After the Cuban Missile Crisis love blossomed between two rather odd looking mutants. In this case their love blossomed way too fast! Rated for mild sexual reference. Witness the antics of the Brotherhood as they take part in creating a life.
1. Secrets

I don't own X-men or any of the characters. I have no OCs partially because I refuse to use them. I can and will though use random nameless people for little things in the story, ie) Grocery people, pedestrians, doctors.

* * *

><p>"I should have expected this, I mean really. I had unprotected sex with a man who didn't even pull out when he was done and yet I still had the nerve to be in denial. Well, it's expected every young, hot woman goes through this right?" The blue woman muttered to herself as he pulled down her dress and got off the toilet.<p>

Oh yes, they are entitled to some denial however long it lasts and in Mystique's case her denial survived three positive pregnancy tests, and two days of random hunger paired with bouts of morning sickness.

She had finally passed stage one, the denial that is and was sailing well off into stage two; rage. She and Charles used to watch such shows together about unexpected pregnancies (Though this was usually achieved through adultery and she did no such thing!) and every lead female went through denial, rage, panic and finally acceptance. Out of all four, Mystique had to say she found rage to be the most enjoyable. Ah yes, she thought pleasantly to herself on how she was going to ring the poor bastard's neck and snap his tail in half. She'd probably yell a lot too, something along the lines Of, "You! You did this! I used to have curves!"

Of course she doubted her body would be affected in any way from this. Well maybe, she had never been pregnant; "Would it affect my shape shifting? How long until the bump showed? Is it too late to get a hysterectomy?"

All of those thoughts rushed through her head until she stopped dead at one thought. "Oh god, Eric what would he think? Is this something he'd be angry about or not… Would the father leave if I couldn't stay?"

Mystique thanked whatever stars were out there that the brotherhood had the decency to line the bathrooms with metal so that damn whore Emma wouldn't get into people's head when they were having… Intimate moments, but Mystique knew that her secrecy wouldn't last for long. Perhaps a day or two but nothing more, the different ways that someone could find out were so vast that there was no way to dodge every single one. Mystique sighed and accepted that and left the bath room, walking close to the wall to let Angel flitter through into the bathroom, grumbling angrily about needing to straighten her hair.

A few minutes later Mystique was in the kitchen boiling some hot water and shoving a microwave meal into the microwave for lunch. Suddenly it dawned upon her, she hadn't hid the tests. "Shit , there goes my one day grace period. Maybe I can strike a deal with Angel to keep a secret? No, who am I kidding, she'll tell everyone. The whole brotherhood compound will know before the damn macaroni will be done heating and I'll have to pack my bags. God, can I at least finish my lunch before the news gets out?"

Life decided to slap her in the face, because not a moment later her microwave meal beeped and Angel Salvadore ran into flew into the kitchen, wings beating like a hummingbird's heart and her face flushed. She held out a plastic sandwich bag with three pregnancy tests. "Oh my god, Mystique you will never guess what I found in the bathroom. I almost burned my hair with my straightener. Guess."

Mystique rolled her eyes and peeled the remaining cellophane off her plastic dish. "I dunno a baby?"

Angel laughed. "It might as well have been!" she threw the plastic bag down on the counter to demonstrate, "See, all positive. You know what that means…. There's gunna be a baby around here! I'm going to be an auntie. God I hope It's a girl I wanna pass off all the tricks of the trade. I wonder who's it is… I mean Emma seems to be a likely candidate or some girl Riptide or Azazel dragged in."

Mystique sighed, it's now or never. "Well, Angel why don't you sit down…" Mystique made the both of them a cup of steaming hot tea and picked at her macaroni a bit, not feeling as hungry as she was when she had a day to think.

"Well, come'on I haven't got all day what do you think about this piece of gossip?" Angel stole a spoon full of tasteless, gluey macaroni from Mystique.

"Umm… Angel what would you do if I said those tests where mine?" She sipped nervously at her tea.

Angel shrugged and picked up her tea cup. "I dunno I'd probably find the daddy and dump this tea all over his crotch. You know hot water sterilize his toilet parts."

Mystique choked on her tea a bit, imagining that happening to her lover was quite hilarious, though a bit morbid. "And if I told you Azazel was the father?"

Angel thought a bit more on this one before her face dawned in realization. "Really Mystique, you and Red made a kid! Never would have guessed, well you two do have that exotic look thing going on for each other… Does he know?"

Mystique shook her head and ran her fingers through her hair. "This means it's a secret. Ok Angel? Just you and me, just us girls."

Angel nodded with a serious face, "Yeah, just us girls. Let's pinky swear on it." she held out her pinky and let Mystique's slightly scaled pinky curl around it. "Deal"

The winged girl then got off her chair, "Ok now I gotta bounce. I promised Emma I'd go do her nails. Don't worry your secret's safe with me! Mum's the word."

The moment the girl left Mystique heard soft whispered and excited gasps from the hallways. "Pinky promises my ass." She mentally cursed. Just then she heard a frightening clatter of silverware and china, a loud "bamf" and several surprised curse words from angel"

Mystique groaned. "Note to self never trust Angel with a secret."

* * *

><p>After Azazel's heart rate returned to normal, Magneto summoned everyone to the common space. Riptide sat on the love seat with Emma and Angel crammed on both sides, Azazel sat in a mock calm on an ottoman and Mystique sat in a sofa right in front of him. Magneto walked into the room and began to speak. "It seems we have had some tension this afternoon among our ranks."<p>

"Here we go… I am so dead." Mystique thought.

Magneto carried on in his booming voice, "And it is something that none of us expected, seeing those directly involved didn't know until moments ago, but I assure you it is something to celebrate!"

Mystique looked up, "Whoa. What?" she yelled in both surprise and relief.

Eric smiled at her in a calming manner, "Of course it is, your baby will be a second generation mutant! If Azazel is truly the father your son will surely carry the x-gene, after all the males are the ones who spread it."

Azazel sat there in indifference as usual; he refused to look like he DID something to ANYONE, until Angel walked up to him and slapped him across the cheek. He was slightly stunned, "What was that for comrade?" He growled out, sounding sickenly fake on the "comrade".

Angel then proceeded to move to stomp on his tail, which was minding its own business beside the leg of the ottoman, luckily Azazel ported to the opposite side of the room in a puff of purple smoke. Angel flicked her wings out of her back and seemed to want to chase him, but instead flew over to Mystique and pulled her into a hug. "She's her with your baby and you won't even give her the time of day? Man you are a shitty husband. Comfort her now fool or I'll stick a fire ball down your pants."

Mystique put a hand on her friend's shoulder and rubbed, Angel relaxed getting the signal to back off. Mystique walked over to Azazel and dragged him out of the room and into her own. Magneto sighed and dismissed the others ordering them to give the love birds "time to figure things out".

In reality there was nothing to figure out, Mystique knew Azazel was happy on the inside, he had never been one to express himself so openly, in comparison to Angel or herself though Azazel was like an emotional rock.

Mystique climbed into her lush bed and shifted over to leave space for Azazel to crawl in with her, she felt the bed dip down in weight as he slid in and curled himself around her. He leaned into her warmth wrapping his tail around her waist and putting his chin against the nape of her neck. Mystique's breathing eventually slowed until her eyes fluttered in sleep. Dusk had changed to night and nothing illuminated the room aside from the slight glow of Mystique's golden eyes. As she began to drift off into sleep her lover mumbled softly, "I hope it's a boy." Then wrapped his tail protectively around her stomach and what would soon be their baby.

* * *

><p>My box~ Awww... Isn't that sappy. No worries this is just the honey moon period I've heard so much about they don't really act like this. Anyways... R&amp;R to tell me if I should keep going., as usual for me once a week posts, anyone who wants to beta read can PM me and... Umm.. if anyone wants side romances i'm up for suggestions. Yes. I hope this goes well as a side project from "Hierarchy of Needs". Tah~<p> 


	2. Hidden Intentions

I don't own the X-Men, Hell Fire Club or Brotherhood of Mutants, in fact I only own the creation of the plot I have made. So let me not waste your time further with my prattle... Here you go!~

* * *

><p>After a week of research on babies and the… Detailed version of the birds and the bees (courtesy of Angel and the much disgruntled riptide), the brotherhood finally settled into knowing there was another living thing inside Mystique who would temporarily leech off her life and other body functions. Mystique herself thought the brotherhood was taking it quite well, and really they just had to sit through a seven not all nine months of pregnancy, as she only found out about six weeks in. Indeed, all of the brotherhood members were rather excepting, except for Emma Frost and Riptide. Why, Mystique would never know, but she could take a good guess as to why.<p>

"UGH! I cannot believe that stuck up little bitch! She thinks she's such a… Such a queen! Just because she got in the beds of some powerful men! Why I oughta turn her into a diamond bracelet for that! Ugh!" She complained to Angel while sitting in a bean bag thrown carelessly around Angel's room for their evening girl sessions.

Angel from her spot on the white carpet, painted another nail with a base coat and skimmed over a how to page for French cuts sitting on a coffee table, "Well Mystique what could you expect she's from a boy's club and you just reserved red there for life. If you know what I mean." She wiggled her eyebrows at her while fumbling with the polish brush.

"Well, she could at least be supportive for the fact that it's going to be his baby. I mean, really just cause I was in the X-Men and not the Hell Fire Club makes me inferior? If anything they should be the lower rungs here!" Mystique grabbed another jar of peanut butter spread and put in on a celery root before nibbling on it.

Angel shrugged, "Maybe it's cause you haven't killed anyone yet. I mean we've all done it and we're all from pretty roughed up backgrounds. She might not like bad boy Azazel dating a princess like you. Dammit, my hand slipped." She grabbed the polish remover and began rubbing off polish.

She waved the celery stick like a wand as she explained as if that would make her justifications better. "Yeah well, I'm banned from missions until further notice and I've been taking those assassination training sessions with Magneto, along with combat practice with Riptide. Oh, which reminds me, he's been acting a bit weird lately too. Do you know what's up?"

"Nah and Silent, doesn't talk to me much. And by talk, I mean look my way, cause he… you know. Anyways, No clue, but you're right, when you're not looking I've seen him look at you like a creeper. Do you think he might be angry with you too?" Angel retorted as she grabbed polish pen and continued to paint on the little flowers.

Mystique sunk into her bean bag a bit more and sighed, "Is everyone in this house out to get me?"

Angel looked up from her nails and shook her head. "Yeah, not me though, or your lover boy, but I'm not too sure about the others. I mean Magneto changed a lot in the past few months. I mean seriously it's only February so a few months since the island. He's been looking into capturing other mutants for our team, getting to Cerebro and stuff like that. The old Erik would have just been happy to kill Shaw, now look."

Mystique's anger flared a bit at someone attacking her ideal, but she quelled it down. She couldn't let her only ally here go to waste. "Well, yeah. But the old Magneto wasn't fighting a war. Anyways it's frost and Riptide I have to worry about. I can feel them trying to pull the baby out of me, and then killing me with their eyes."

"Yeah, well your baby's probably going be a fat and cute thing. Maybe even have a tail. They're probably planning to take it and try to pass it off as their own. Dunno how'd they do that though figuring the kid's skin is either going to be blue or red, seeing the lovely choices of colour mom and dad gave him… Oh my god! What if your colours mixed and he came out purple" Mystique cradled her head at that, both in agony and trying not to picture her with a purple child.

"Angel- The point is-"Angel cut her off, more serious now.

"I'm just saying that your kid is one, going to be cute, likely powerful and if it's anything like you naïve. It's going to be dead loyal and probably fun to mess around with. So you and red need to watch out around the end, Magneto could seriously mess the kid up or take him from you. Emma could be put on babysitting or something and fly him into a wall. God forbid if someone finds us and he gets stuck in a fight. When that kid is born you got to watch out for yourself girl, and let the right people take care of it. Like me cause I'd be the super awesome auntie who'd spoil him OR HER – hopefully her, with gifts and play time. Now what do you think?" Angel showed Mystique her new and improved nails.

"Turned out better than I thought, really nice." Complimented Mystique, though having a totally different meaning than what her friend took in, she put on a happy face and hid the secret fear that she had just realized. "Ugh, damn Angel, she really knows how to make a woman feel better about her insecurities…" Mystique thought sarcastically.

"I think I'm going to train for a while." She stated quickly as she left the room with long, quick strides. The blue woman made her way to the training room – currently a basement that was refurbished to be a little more tolerant to their type of 'training' – avoiding other brotherhood members, particularly Emma and Janos.

Mystique set up a training dummy in the center of the room and started off with a basic stance before moving on to more difficult ones, going slowly as not to misjudge her amount of energy and focus on the quality of her blows. The blue woman focused on only the movements of her body not the chill of the cold basement air on her bare scaled flesh, her lingering thoughts or even what Azazel could be doing at the moment.

She landed another blow into the dummy's stomach and it toppled over, she rose her foot and stomped out what would have been a man's delicate brain. Mystique prided herself in her hand to hand combat, though she wasn't particularly good at anything else or had yet to actually kill a person. She went to a small weapon rack in the corner and pulled out two small daggers and re-adjusted the dummy to stand again.

Azazel watched his blue beauty beat the shit out of the armored training dummy, the curves of her body and angles of her bone bend and twist to impossible shapes, for such beauty to bring such destruction. He remembered the first time he had seen her in battle, or rather a state of un-battle, should there be such a word. She had not fought, not like this. As she will, and as she could have, instead she conned him, using her innocence and natural manipulative personality to disarm, but not kill.

No he could not yet imagine her kill, to stain her rich blue skin with deep red, but one day she will have to, for mutant kind, for her life and family. Until then Azazel was striving to keep this Mystique for as long as he could, the coddled, cushy version of Mystique. The woman who still held some remains of "Raven Darkholme" and was blooming into a beautiful, deadly assassin. "Just my type…" Azazel thought.

He snuck into the training room and poked Mystique in the waist with his tail, being very cautious of the armed woman. Luckily for him he only dropped a dagger – likely due to inexperience he noted. Azazel wrapped his arms behind her and held her slightly scaled wrists in his hands. He felt his warmth leave his body from this contact, but nonetheless shifted his arms and thus hers. "Your position is wrong; you're leaving blind spots everywhere." He whispered into her ear, "You're cold. You should wear more clothing."

Mystique slid his arms down to her hips and turned to face him, "Why you worried people other than you will walk in on me training? Anyways both you and I know I don't need clothes, these –"She flicked a large protruding scale, "covers everything worth seeing."

Azazel simply stared at her and gave her back the dagger with his tail, he teleported out of the room, and only out of it. Mystique could see the smoke coming from under the door way. She sighed and turned back to the dummy, unsure if Azazel left because he was done talking to her or if she secretly embarrassed him, if he was embarrassed she wouldn't know due to his skin tone anyways.

Out in the hall way Azazel passed Riptide and Emma who seemed to be waiting right outside of the door. He gave them a curt nod and his usual greeting of "Comrades." before teleporting to where ever he saw fit.

* * *

><p>My box~ Sorry for the wait. I wanted to do this chapter carefully as it would really determine the rest of the chapters, but I do have a WHOLE bunch of chapters done for after "Mystique's 'bun' is out of the 'oven'...". Thanks to all those who critiqued and I focused a bit more on those things this time! (Hopefully it shows.) Still looking for a beta-reader. R&amp;R Till next time! -By the way for those who are wondering I am Canadian thus I spell everything in Canadian spelling. Ie) Sulphur vs. Sulfur. )<p> 


	3. Night Out Part One

I don't own any of these lovely wonderful characters and their fine bodies. ): But I own the plot of which I make nothing but the joy of others off.

* * *

><p>Azazel was naturally a quiet, perhaps solitary man, he usually had little to say unless important and was furthered to more silence from the language gap with his new "comrades". It was not that he had trouble thinking of the word in English, but more that he simply did not like the way the words lacked flow from his mouth to another's ears. The devilish looking man did not think that an accent could be so bothersome while speaking, or that someone would have trouble listening to him talk – Forcing him to do another thing he disliked very much; repeating himself. Thus he relied mostly on body language to communicate to his team mates.<p>

At the moment he had a very tense pose, unhappy and rigid, his tail totally straight – completely ready to teleport, as he stared Emma and Janos in the eye, his left on Janos's left and his right one focused on Emma's right. "Comrades… What is it that you need."

Janos shrugged and smiled a close mouthed smile to his partner in silence and the telepath responded for the both of them, "Oh, just to have a little chat, you know about Little Miss Blue in there." She said smugly as she gestured to the training room door. Azazel nodded to show understanding, but only nodded to show how reluctant he was to take part in said chat.

"We think it would be best for you, and us… that we leave and leave this cute little family crusade behind. At least just for a while, this… Woman is a novice compared to us and we can't afford to have her drag what's left of the Hell Fire Club back." Emma stepped closer and closer to Azazel, hoping to drive a little bit of intimidation on the taller man with something other than the melodic chill of her accented voice.

Azazel seemed to contemplate this, not quite wanting to leave his new home and routine he was nicely settled into, but seeing some sensibility in Emma and Janos's argument he thought about his next choice of action – as he was not only a silent man, but very rational.

"Give me one day and you can make your decision." with that Azazel teleported up into his room, leaving Emma and Janos wondering what their comrade was up to.

Azazel teleported into his usual spot in his room, a small corner far from anything wood or anything else that could decide to ignite from his teleporting, the only indication of it was the ring of charred ground below it. His room was least to say cluttered. Azazel could be described by outsiders as a kleptomaniac, pack rat or perhaps simply disorganized. But to his close team mates, Mystique – his current partner, and Magneto – who insisted to know where all the "crap" was coming from, it was an organized chaos of paintings, ornaments and general things that interested Azazel greatly. To say he was a kleptomaniac would have been cruel and inconsiderate seeing as he couldn't exactly walk into a store and buy what he wanted, though he did have quite a bit of money saved up.

Mystique didn't like Azazel's room too much, saying constantly that there was little room to walk, too many things to focus on and such. The red man always shrugged it off, she couldn't quite understand it the same way he did, after all she was a shape shifter, a metamorph, very far from his own situation. It was difficult to be like Azazel, physically different and stuck as such. Living his life in relative isolation he hadn't seen much of the world properly, only in the cover of night where there would be nothing to do or in the brief flashes he took randomly just to satisfy his need to teleport. He walked over his bed, tip toeing over little trinkets and boxes to his bed post where one of his favourite things hung. He let his tail hook to the bottom of the black captain's hat and lifted it up to his head with his tail. He let it sit loosely on his head, and went to an antique mirror he found washed up from a beach one evening he thought it perhaps was from a sunken cruise ship of some sort. He stared at his reflection his scarred face and lopsided hat as he thought seriously on what he was going to do.

It was true, Mystique made him do things at times that were rather out of character – such as telling Emma and Janos that he only needed a day, but he also thought that Mystique had potential, potential to be an unstoppable force, after all who can stop a woman who could be anyone? Anything, any age, pick any life she wanted. She would be everlasting! Azazel knew that Emma had seen this too, perhaps that was the reason Emma wanted to get rid of her, before Mysique realized that potential was there.

Azazel fixed his hat to an acceptable fashion, the star of it pointing to the front of his face, the top point of it aligned nicely with his nose as he set out to try and keep life how he wanted it, though he truly doubted it would last in his choice of profession.

All of which eventually led him to a small hill offside a small town in Russia, one that could be passed by carelessly while on vacation. Kashin had a total population of perhaps six hundred (but now swelling due to the recent end of the war) and only a handful of unused buildings. The entire town was surrounded by a river and looming forested hills that would soon be converted to agricultural land. There were several churches, all quite well aged with ivy plants crawling up the walls and many spots were lovely scenery could be seen. With Azazel of course was Mystique, whom he purposefully brought to this quaint little town to do something he'd rather not do, but what he wouldn't do to make this work out.

"Take a deep breath." He instructed his partner, knowing full well that it would only be a few years before the air quality here was tainted by the agricultural businesses and it being Feburary made the air crisp, refreshing and exhilarating to breathe. "Lyubov we are going to go into town." He calmly stated as he watched his breath rise into the deep blue sky. "Do you want me to change into a more human form?"

Azazel shook his head and lead her to a dirt path way leading to the town lit by the stars and silvery moon. Mystique smiled, though freezing cold she never thought Azazel was one for a private date, but as usual the silence of the night was overbearing, with the additional feeling of what could be frost building up on her cheek, even more so. _"Geez, it may be nice that we're finally getting out… But in the middle of the dang night, during the winter in Russia? Not only that I'm pretty sure none of the others know we're gone. Ohhh!~ It's like a secret date!"_ Mystique chided to herself mentally picturing what it would be like if she were to elope with Azazel. _"Damn I would look hot in a wedding dress."_ She complimented herself.

She felt the terrain changed under the heel of her boot, being able to hear the soft clicking of it. She wrapped her fur coat around herself tighter as a breeze blew through the little town and looked at Azazel confusedly as he stopped. "Lyubov, do you see the hat on my head?"

Mystique raised her eyebrow to this question, "Of course, it is as real as you and I." she replied, though wondering why he would ask that in the first place.

"It was in this town where I had gotten it, by that river there on a night much like tonight." He pointed a red hand – looking more black in the dimly lit streets, at the river surrounding the town.

"The Russian army was always patrolling little towns like this during the cold war, being very suspicious of the Americans, so they did not take many risks. I found a small row boat with a single captain inside, I simply had teleported on shore, not quite expecting anyone to be here in the middle of the night. He of course saw me, and at the time, not quite seeing me clearly must have thought me to be an American who must have been trained with some new special power." Msytique giggled a bit at that trying to imagine Azazel being a super powered American, though one could say Mystique herself was indeed a super powered American herself.

Regardless Azazel continued with his banter, "I had killed him of course, Shaw not wanting the Hell fire club to be revealed, but not before the captain was able to cause alarm to the natives of the town, who I had not known where very phobic of the unique and possible American attack. I decided to I had to run, but not before I took a little parting gift." He touched the tip of his hat and grinned a bit at Mystique.

"It is my favourite you know, it reminds me very much of why I have to fight. On that night I ran, not because I was in danger, but because I simply could not kill that many people in a small town and get away with it. Yet it still reminds me that we need to fight because we were born different." Azazel slithered a hand into one of Mystique's, he turned to face her.

"This isn't a date is it?" The blue woman asked white wisps of breath mixing and dancing with small puffs of Azazel's own breath.

"No, it is a date." The man assured.

"Was that little anecdote your way of being charming?" Mystique looked into her man's dark eye with her bright yellow, seeing the yellow reflecting off black.

"If it is working yes, but I simply wanted to share something I thought relevant." Azazel retorted.

"You're lucky I'm carrying your baby because you really know how to ruin a romantic moment! In a cute way of course." She turned away from him in a huff and allowed herself to be dragged off, Azazel's tail looped around Mystique's right wrist and his right hand in her left. They walked into town for an evening out.

* * *

><p>My box - Yes, Azazel and Mystique are going out for a night of romancing! Of course it would never go as planned. I mean... Really? What could possibly happen? Why is Azazel here and what is it that he doesn't want to do? This tension! - Tis not good for the baby. D: Anyways! I hope you enjoyed this chapter and keep enjoying chapters to come.<p>

P.S almost school time. Yay or Nay? Definitely a yay for me. Drawing X-men binder stickers can only go so far! But hey, at least I have a hot, hot, hot (yes THREE hots) gambit on my binder now.

By the way if anyone wants specific characters from other movies added in please say so? Because the time line for First class is a bit odd, seeing as Havok is Cyclops's brother but somehow 21+ while Storm and Jean were still depicted as toddlers and Nightcrawler wasn't even born yet. I figure there is quite a bit of wiggle room on canon characters popping up.


	4. Night Out Part Two

I don't own these lovely characters other than the baddies I make. This story also makes nothing aside from the satisfaction of me and my readers.

* * *

><p>Mystique and Azazel stopped at a little late night pastry shop in the town; it was quaint, quiet and cozy. The owners were an elderly couple, Mister and Misses Krovlavish who had gotten the shop from their parents and were now passing it down to their son, the generations of family put into the store was shown through the extremely old vintage décor of old Victorian wood furnishings and china tea sets.<p>

The walls during the day time would have been a bright cheerful pastel rose lined with white but in the dark of night and glow of a few flickering candles set out by the owners for their tourist crowds, it looked more like a deep, velvety lavender, rather than pink and the white had lovely shadows casted over them, creating subtle arrays of grey.

There were not many people there, and those who were already dining decided it would be wise to finish their desserts quickly and pay the check without a word upon the couple's arrival. Few decided to stay, sharing hushed whispers and scared glances towards the owners begging them to do something about the red and blue skinned strangers.

One diner visibly paled when Azazel's tail swished into his view from its warm nest of clothing.

The owners though did nothing, for the old woman was hard on sight and the man wasn't willing to turn down a costumer regardless of how… Foreign they were. Their son, Bilan on the other hand knew full well about these two strangers in his little family run shop. There was no way he was going to let them just waltz in here as if they were equal!

The Russian pastry maker in training had stories read to him before about such beings, at first he had thought they were myth until many years ago a young boy he had seen on the docks. Demons truly did live among them, perhaps not the unicorns and elves he had been told about, but surely demons existed as he saw one with his own two eyes!

Bilan was wary, he himself knew that he was not to make a scene, as not to further disturb the other tourists and such, but he could sure as hell give those two a hard time. He walked over to Mystique and Azazel who had stripped off their coats in preference to the shop's warmth over the thick heavy furs.

They had chosen a banquet to sit in with a view of the town close to the window, and curled up there skimming the menu casually, as if not noticing the tension that they inflicted in the small eatery.

The two looked sickingly sweet, if they looked like normal humans Bilan would have thought this was cute, but he couldn't get over the tail wrapped around the blue woman's waist. Not to mention that the blue woman was now completely naked! If it wasn't for the scales that covered her indecency he perhaps could have had legitimate excuse to have kicked them out. "Surely, she must be some sort of succubus and he is a devil!" Bilan thought as he reached the two's table.

"Your orders?" He spat out, perhaps more irritation than he had meant to put in was heard in his tone of voice.

The red man he noted seemed to care less about how he was treated as he sat there poking his hat around the table, but the woman was, at least for a second hurt or angry, Bilan did not know which – as he was also unsure if a succubus could feel such emotions. Yet a shimmer of emotion flashed in her piercing yellow eyes, then nothing.

Like a true lady, she pushed aside what annoyance she had in order to enjoy her evening. She straightened up and turned to Bilan, looking him straight in the eyes, obviously purposely in attempt to scare him.

"Da, ya hotel by…. goryachiĭ kofe mokko , i on hochet…"_(I would like a hot mocha, and he wants…"_ She looked over to her companion and turned back to Bilan, who held his pen to his notepad in anticipation with a slight look of confusion on his face that came naturally with tourists who likely learned the phrases of a book.

"i yemu pridet syalatte s karamelʹyu…. Pi….roz….h..noe? s kofe…..j….nym? bes…hem…e….lem?" (And he'll have a caramel latte with choux pastries filled with coffee bechamel…" She attempted pitifully, saying each syllable slowly and uncertainly while she dechipered each Russian letter.

Mystique felt Azazel's body jerk slightly beside her waist. Likely trying desperately trying not to laugh at her accent and confusion or trying not to cry at the desicration of his native tongue, Mystique could guess either.

The waiter wrote down the latte and the mocha and looked at them with a clean expression of irritation and confusion that should not have been apparent as he must have had to deal with hundreds of tourists daily.

"Ha, figures the demon people would not know such a complex language like Russian." He thought to himself in russian of course as Mystique whispered into Azazel's ear.

Azazel cleared his throat and got Bilan's attention. "Ona hotela skazatʹ , chto ya hotel by imetʹ Pirozhnoe s kofejnym beshemelem." He parroted with perfect pronunciation that only a person living in Russia since birth would have had.

Azazel could tell the man was surprised and Azazel himself wanted to be uncharacteristically smug about it and ask if he had a problem with his Russian or something of the sort, but he didn't get the chance as Bilan had walked away quickly without even saying a goodbye or confirmation that the order was heard.

Instead Azazel directed his gloating to Mystique who was obviously already angry at him for the copious amounts of mental laughing he had done. It was times like these that Azazel was truly thankful she was a shape shifter not a telepath, though much less useful in battle, so much safer to be around. Not that he would mind sharing his thoughts with the other. He settled for a smug smile at Mystique instead of his usual bout of suave poking, not wanting to ruin the moment.

After all they would probably go to a very American place one day, and though his English was rather good, it was still "cute" and "silly" how he sounded or attempted to pronounce words with random silent letters or ones that were just particularly long.

She smacked him a bit on the shoulder and grumbled something much like "Shut up." in attempt to mask her embarrassment. "Azazel?"

He looked over to Mystique who looked stunning to him at the moment, her blue skin painted into a midnight black with highlights of dark raven blue. Her hair lit with shades of orangey red to deep crimson by the flickering flames of the candle light. "Yes, Lyubov?" He responded as calmly and level headed as he could be – which was very, very calm almost stoic, but not quite as a undertone of tenderness still laid in its wake.

"What the hell did I just order?" She asked, un-jokingly as she simply chose thee pastry on the menu with little stars beside it and hoped that had meant "local favourites".

"You ordered two different types of coffee and a pastry. Don't worry it is good. I like it, so it's fine. It is like… A cream puff filled with coffee." Azazel explained.

"It is not an uncommon thing to eat in Russia, it is something like a classic afternoon treat, though one should not have it too often." He offered, trying to lengthen what would be for him a usually short question and answer conversation.

"Hmm, good. That waiter seemed a little unfriendly don't you think?" Mystique whispered into his ear, either trying to be seductive or secretive, at the moment both could have been plausible.

Azazel shrugged. "Small village, I'm sure they would be nervous if a Chinese person were to walk in here, most tourists here do not choose to come in the winter and most are from Europe or United States."

"Still he was a bit of a prick. And it's been ten minutes it's like he's purposely being slow!" Mystique said a twinge louder, and more aggressively, yellow eyes flashing a sliver of anger. Azazel said nothing, but hand his hand through her hair, which seemed to never deviate from the owner's style no matter how much he played with it. Perhaps it was a part of her mutation, if so she had a very fashionable mutation.

A few minutes passed more minutes had passed, filled with Mystique's observations of the little town and Azazel nodding or explaining something. Finally the waiter arrived with a small plate piled high with round pastry some filled to the point of spilling with a warm coffee filling. It had a light dusting of sugar and a drizzle of a caramel sauce poured on top of it, gently smudging the defined lines of the sugar.

Their coffees were put down after, a thousand, warm, kind kisses for the cold all contained in a small cup, both with a generous dollop of buttery whipped cream on top. Bilan had simple placed the food and drink in front of the two hastily and rather impolitely before rushing off to clean tables that needed to be cleared and such, trying desperately to keep his mind off the supposedly mythical creatures dining in the very room he was in.

All in all he thought he had done a rather good job in 'showing' the demon people that humans were no pushovers, though on the other hand they seemed rather content regardless of what he did. Bilan thought about this as he watched through the corners of his eyes Mystique sipping on her mocha, saucer held to her body and lips blowing a soft current of air and Azazel drinking his caffe latte as if he had just woken up… With his tail, and plucking out one of the choux pastries with the tiny dessert forks provided with the order.

He thought that they had looked rather human, almost normal. On a date, like any other person, feeding each other like any couple would and they apparently felt cold just as any man or woman – all three things those mythical tales Grandmama, and Papa had not told him about in his childhood.

The two finished their meal quickly, warmed up and filled with rather fattening sweets they paid the bill (probably Erik's money) and put on their coats, being the last patrons of the day the shop closed as they left, the older couple cleaning up their cups and Bilan leaving to "meet with friends".

Mystique and Azazel walked through the houses of the small village, for a very small village, all of the houses were on the large size, perhaps made many decades ago for large families of farmers and fishers. The gardens would have likely looked gorgeous in the summers, without all of the snow piled on either side of the drive way. Fifteen or so minutes into their little stroll Azazel decided to stop the both of them at an intersection with a rather distinctly large tree to stargaze.

The two stood there, Azazel's tail wrapped up under his coat not quite appreciating the weather and his arm wrapped around Mystique's waist linking his hand into her pocket. While the two were looking at the small shimmering gems in the night sky, a sudden sound resonated through the night sky.

"Azazel… Did you hear that?" Mystique asked, hoping the sound was simply a figment of her imagination.

"Yes. I did, it seems to be coming from behind us…" Just at that moment the sound became louder, more urgent and desolate.

It was a shriek, that of a wounded animal, pained and hollow. Yet, no one came out of their houses to check what this horrifying sound was. Mystique thought to herself, "And I thought people were supposed to be empathetic!" Yes, empathy, a word that has lost its meaning in the midst of hatred, greed and prejudice.

Mystique and Azazel ran towards the noise as it became more frequent, more pained, but quieter, as it was masked by rounds of angry yelling and cheering.

What the two saw disgusted Mystique, enraged her. Azazel on the other hand looked on as if it were a fact of life. Seeing this from her lover made something snap in her, it was horrid, seeing her mate simply accept that THAT was normal and what society had put out for their kind. That someone who had very strong beliefs in rights and equality, reduced to being a bystander of a small boy with a rather normal mutation, nothing that human kind has not seen before, small scales lining the body much like an alligator.

Seeing the size of the mob, the two understood why no one had come out to investigate the noise. The whole damn village must have been here attacking the scaled boy. That unabashed screaming he made each time a villager's torch flame licked at him or was struck with a wooden plank.

Suddenly Mystique broke in to a fevered sprint, as she saw Bilan rile the crowd further as a group of older boys continued to beat the bloodied boy.

Mystique shifted into a beastly creature and growled out, "You want to fend off demons? Well now you have one!" She charged forwards with an inhuman growl quickly disposing of several of the attackers, dead or unconscious she didn't know or care at the moment.

She threw punches in blind rage and used all of the hand to hand moves she had practiced, pulling many fatal blows, a knee to the head; kick to the stomach perhaps a jumping strike for the larger, beefier people.

She easily knocked out woman and teenagers who thought they could take her. The remainder of the villagers with any common sense fled the moment the blood of their own kin stained the snow. It was all over in a minute, Azazel simply missed out on it as when he had decided to move there was only one person left in the crowd, aside from Mystique, the mutant boy and himself.

Mystique gripped Bilan's neck in her hand, her sharp nails digging into his skin as her firm muscles contracted quickly, delivering a wave of light headedness to the man.

Mystique switched back to her own form. "I want you to see who will kill you and you will be an example to the rest of your people – not just those of your village, but the world. We won't we pushed around anymore." She hissed at him like a viper, deadly and low as she went in for the kill.

Before Bilan could utter out a word – though he likely could not have seeing as Mystique's grip was so damn strong the man could so nothing, but weakly claw at the hand taking his life away slowly and gasp for air.

Suddenly pain blossomed in Bilan's stomach as Mystique used her other hand to strike him right below the diaphragm. She let go of his neck and let him bend over and curl on the ground. She scoffed at the man at her feet, at her mercy and then stomped the heel of her snow boots through his head. "I'll see you in hell bastard." She spat.

She turned to Azazel who kneeled by the mutant boy, two fingers on his neck. Azazel stood up and shook his head sadly. There was no point in teleporting to a doctor; the boy was already long gone from blood loss. The white snow around them was soaked in blood and was freezing into ice already. The peace of the village had settled back in, but in a bad way as there was still carnage all around them.

The stars still twinkled above, though fading into a melting dawn. The two as they breathlessly made clouds of white above their heads. Mystique turned to Azazel. "Thanks for taking me out here. It was amazing. Now let's go home." She said sadly, silently mourning the death of the mutant boy, whose death vaguely hit her close to the heart.

Azazel knew better than to argue with Mystique when she did command him. He pulled her into an embrace and let the air shift around him as he teleported the two of them back to the entrance Brotherhood compound. It was late evening as they arrived back from Russia Azazel curled up in bed with Mystique – an action that has become very habitual for him as of recent.

As he laid there he too mourned, but not for the blood spilt in Russia that night, but the death of Raven Darkholme, but at the same time welcomed Mystique. Just Mystique, like he was just Azazel.

He waited until Mystique had fallen asleep before climbing out and actually walking to his own room. He hung his hat on its spot on the bedpost and went to rudely awaken his two fellow ex-Hellfire Club members (an organization that Azazel now realized sounded a bit like a child's secret tree house).

He gathered to two and in his tow teleported them to the small town of Kashin, Russia where tonight, ten men, seven woman, a litter of children and one mutant boy had been slaughtered in the name of mutant rights.

Emma and Janos paced around the pile of dead or groaning people, making sure to finish off anyone Mystique didn't. They nodded to each other and turned to their colleague, "She did this?"

Azazel did not say a yes or a no, though it was irrefutable that his lover did indeed do this with no help from him, instead he only said, "The problem is fixed." Azazel stated.

Emma and Janos accepted this and began disposing of the bodies in the river.

* * *

><p>My box – Hey everyone! Sorry for taking a while. I figured I wanted to finish this sequence. School is starting soon and it's time to get back into my work schedule, aka no more working late nights writing stories.<p>

Sigh… but on the bright news I get to see all my friends and have constant muses for my writing, as today's was rather morbid I want a happier chapter later on. I'm only doing main events of her life, so I'm not going to go for long tidbits of events that don't quite interest me.

Thank you Sheherazade's Fable and Katie for reviewing and showing me some mistakes! ;) Your critiques and suggestions have been noted and worked in! :D

A la Prochain!


	5. Wait Where's the heart?

I don't own these lovely characters, only the plot and my own self-satisfaction.

* * *

><p>It was a lovely day, mid-march. So far Mystique's pregnancy was going along smoothly. The incident in Russia had been long forgotten by Mystique after telling Angel every aspect of her international date with her "lyubov", well with the exception of all the dead humans.<p>

Though Mystique had decided to put it behind her, the remainder of the team who knew remained wary of her, being Emma, Janos and Erik. Respectfully the three could hold their own against the blue woman, but that incident in Russia was more than enough of a reminder that, she, though had less experience in hardship than the rest of them, was just as capable in fulfilling the… "Duties" required for their cause.

Janos began listening to Mystique when demanding things during her more emotional periods…

Erik was allowed her on simple missions and harder training exercises

Emma had been noticeably more tolerant of her bouts of mood changes and occasional broad casting of random nonsensical thoughts that she normally could care less about.

Especially one day when suddenly Emma felt a great disturbance in her mind. She was bombarded with sharp, staccato thoughts of pain, panic and fear from none other than Mystique, and then followed by dull, sluggish panic from Azazel – if panic was able to be slow and sluggish.

The English woman turned herself into her diamond form and bolted down the hallway, half expecting guns ablaze or X-men barging in with a fury unsurpassed.

As she crept down the stair case and turned another corner she became more and more tense. Nothing was happening; there was only silence aside from the obvious signs of Mystique's panic from the kitchen.

She finally reached the kitchen and let out a breath of annoyance or relief, Emma couldn't discern which one it could have been, but she hadn't realized she had been holding a breath at all.

Mystique was on the floor clutching the slight bulge of her stomach, her proof of her third month of pregnancy with Azazel crouched beside her silently.

"Emma, go get Erik. We may need a doctor." Azazel stated.

Emma only nodded silently as she telepathically called everyone down to the kitchen, briefly mentioning that it was urgent and to prepare for emotional breakdowns.

The whole group was gathered together within two minutes all around a hysterical blue woman and very stoic frustrated red man. Erik bent down to his only close lady friend's level and tried to get her to look at him with no avail. He kept all his fingers away from her learning from one of Janos's mistakes not too long ago with Mystique and biting.

Instead he gave up and turned to Azazel, "What happened?"

Azazel paused as if trying to recall what happened, by now the others knew better, that the pauses meant nothing concerning Azazel.

"I had teleported into the kitchen and surprised her. She had bumped her stomach into the kitchen counter and started to cry. I believe she had read it in a book that hitting the stomach would kill the baby yesterday… Yes, yesterday, in a magazine comrade."

Magneto turned to Angel and the rest of the group. "We need to find a doctor that will keep quiet."

Mystique stood and growled out, "No humans. I'm not letting those animals touch my baby." remembering the Russian mutant boy from that sad February night.

"Then who" Angel asked, "We don't know any doctors that are mutants." She pulled a chair out for Mystique to settle on.

Mystique ignored the gesture and grabbed the phone, quickly dialing a number. "Lyubov, what are you doing?" Azazel questioned.

His lover rolled her eyes she thought_, "Calling someone. DUH"_ but kept it to herself, knowing that he likely meant to ask who she was calling. "The only person I know will look after our baby."

"Perhaps you would like to share that with the rest of us?" Erik said rather impatiently.

"You guys already know him. Beast. Blue furry scientist?" She said as the phone rang.

Angel reached for the phone, but Mystique turned herself and the phone away from her grabbing hands.

"Why you callin' an X-man? You two may have been buddy-buddy back when we were kids, but you know we sorta ditched them on an island and then **paralyzed** their _good_ leader."

Mystique suddenly turned and put her finger to her lips and whispered "Shh! He's on the line."

"Hi Henri! Remember me? Mystique? Blue scaly and naked?" She paused to wait for a response.

Emma whispered to Azazel. "Are you sure she didn't smack her head?" Azazel nodded, not quite seeing the joke, or disregarding the joke while Angel shh'd her hoping to catch some of what was being said on the other side of the phone.

"No no nono no! Don't hang up I seriously need your help." Another pause…

"Well can I explain if we meet up?" Some disgruntled sounds came from the other side…

"Well can you make a house call?" A tense pause and then finally…

"Ok, fine I'll be there in five minutes.

The rest of the brotherhood waited for her to explain.

"Azazel, we need to go to the mansion." He nodded and grabbed on to her lover, wrapping his whole body around her, tail included. The air began to shift with his teleport, but was interrupted by four hands grabbing onto him as well.

"You're not to go without us." Magneto said.

"Fine" Azazel growled. He let the unwanted passengers latch on to him as he teleported, all of them feeling the slight pressure of being moved through the brimstone and fire dimension and braced themselves to be spat out to their destination.

* * *

><p>They appeared in front of the old Victorian styled mansion, to their relief it was clear of any red alarms, laser beams or bullets flying out at them. But they <strong>SO <strong>could have taken it.

Mystique felt a familiar sensation in the back of her mind, and told the others "Doctor's in."

They all made their way towards the large doors, though knowing full well they could have just teleported in with just as much ease… The group looked menacing and mob-like as they approached the large mansion.

Not to their surprise the doors opened for them before anyone had knocked or even laid a single hand on the door. The brotherhood was met with the familiar faces of Havok and Beast, along with their own posse of new, young mutants.

Beast looked everyone up and down, feeling the awkward tension between the X-men and the Brotherhood's staring contest. He cleared his throat rather loudly and raised his large furred arm to herd the group in.

"Come in, don't be shy… We'll just pop down to the lab and we can figure out what needs to be done." He chided, attempting to make the encounter a little less frightening for the younger mutants that Charles had just recruited not a week ago.

"Well let's just head down now shall we? Charles should already be there." He led the group to the elevators, letting a new teacher Charles had picked up from Africa to take care of any stragglers that may have wanted to tag along.

The elevator was filled with soft music that didn't help the situation any further and nor did the near silent walk to the lab, seeing as the only sound was Azazel's tail swishing softly behind him.

They entered the sterile, white room. Instantly the smell of antiseptic washed over them and most were blinded by the bright, over bearing lights. Erik was immediately more than displeased with the current setting, but decided to wait it out for the sake of Mystique's mental welfare.

"Charles!" Henri called out. "You have visitors."

Xavier pushed himself out of his own work area in his wheel chair, and smiled kindly at everyone. "Mystique, Erik… Didn't expect to see you so soon, what is the trouble?" Charles asked politely.

Mystique stood forward and gestured at Beast and to her group. "Perhaps we would all like to sit down."

Azazel nodded at everyone, obviously not liking being on enemy grounds and each Brotherhood member took a seat on random lab beds, stretchers and tables.

Once again all eyes were on Mystique, much to her discomfort, it was apparent that her plan to make everyone friends for a moment wasn't going to work. _"Ugh, I might as well get on with it then. I hope Charles doesn't lose __**too **__many hairs over this…"_ Noticing her brother's thinning head of hair.

"Well, Beast… Charles…. Umm… Not to sound irresponsible, but I'm pregnant!" She looked at her two old friends, trying to gauge their expressions.

Her fellow blue mutant looked absolutely overjoyed, either with the prospect of seeing something he'd never seen before or just out of happiness for Mystique herself. Most likely the former of the two.

Charles looked shocked beyond belief. "W-What? Wait… With who?"

Mystique rolled her eyes a bit. "Ok, Charles, I know the blue and scaly skin is a bit of a turn off for you, but you know some guys like that sort of thing!"

She winked at Azazel, who once again may or may not have been thrown into a fit of blushing, he most certainly rose in temperature when the powerful telepath' gaze settle on him.

Azazel shot him a devilish smirk that said _"Yeah, I did. What do you wanna do about it?" _

Charles coughed awkwardly, "I'm very happy for you... Mystique can we talk in private?"

"No, you may not!" Angel said spontaneously, not quite liking were that road may lead. "You wanna say something bad bout' the daddy of the baby you gunna haf't to say it in front of ALL of us."

Charles let out a sigh. "I was just going to say if you were sure if you were ready for a baby, that's all!"

Mystique rolled her eyes. "Of course I am. After all it's been in my stomach for three months now! It's a bit late to back down now!"

Charles looked like he was going to faint in his wheel chair. "T-three months? Already? You were planning on telling me this when?"

Mystique scoffed in annoyance. "Like I would have told you at all! If it weren't for Azazel scaring me into a kitchen counter, I would have never called in the first place. I have to get an ultra sound now just to make sure the little thing living in me is ok!"

Henri's focused on Mystique more intently. "An ultra sound? Do you want to do it here?"

Charles turned to his friend. "Henri you can't be serious you want to give them an ultra sound?"

"Well by all means yes! After all it's the third month, the zygote is already a fetus, its brain and spinal cord is already formed and soon we'll be able to hear the heart beat with a dopple! Just imagine what that would be like Charles!"

Before the crippled man could even protest Henri was already leading Mystique and Azazel into a private room, leaving Charles to be stared at by the remainder of the Brotherhood.

"Eh… Well, it's been a while Erik…" The room remained awkwardly silent as Charles attempted to get back to his important genetic research and plan more donors for his mutant training program.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile inside a private examining room with Mystique and Azazel, "Hold still Raven this is going to be a little be cold!"<p>

"Don't call me that Be – Holy shit!" She cursed as the scientist spread ultra sound gel over her stomach.

"Ok, this will be very quick. I just need to prepare a couple of other things, run a scan over your stomach and you'll be seeing your child in real time video."

True to his word in a few moments, a few heartbeats really, a dark image with outlines of reds, oranges and yellows popped up on the screen by the bed.

"Well your baby seems to be fine regardless of the bump to your stomach… It seems to be a bit small for three months and it is still hard to distinguish the sex of your child. Perhaps it is still early in its growth… It must be it. The tail hasn't started to disappear yet… How intriguing. The eyes seem to be giving off more heat than the rest of the body, no eye lids yet…" Henri commented to himself while he let the two parents marvel at the sight of their little spawn twitch about in Mystique's womb.

"Oh my god, look Azazel I think that's its heart…" She pointed at the screen erratically.

Henri shifted her finger on the screen far to the right. "That is the heart… You were pointing at a half formed ear."

Mystique turned to Henri mouthing a "Shut up." Azazel would have laughed at his lover, but was too busy; watching what was his move around like an acrobat in the air inside the dark cavern that was Mystique's body.

When they had decided to leave, after some calmer, more placid conversation between the two teams and a dinner cooked by some of the newer member of the X-men Charles pulled Mystique into an embrace.

"Remember, you are always welcome back here. If you EVER have doubts about your child living with the brotherhood you can bring him here. We'll treat him right." He whispered into her ear.

Mystique gave him a light kiss on the cheek and an affirming nod. She wrapped an arm around her red lover's neck and the brotherhood left with a subtle popping sound, leaving only a ring of fire in their wake.

* * *

><p>My box - Whoo~ It's been a while. Labs and stuff have been piling up! I had a recommendation to add in Charles and I did. It did seem right, after all he was practically family! I'm going to make Charles regret saying to Mystique that they were welcome at anytime.<p>

02AngelBaby75: Thank you for the review! I'm glad you liked the diner! I have a thing for difficult to pronounce pastries so I'm glad someone else liked it too!

Sheherazade's Fable: Intense indeed ;) (And finally not in the dirty way for my fics...) Yes... Very cute until the killing bit. I believe there is less killing up for the next little while!


End file.
